By Drew Goodman / Scrimmageplaycva.com contributor
Having faced William Byrd in the 2018 Region 4D Tournament, the second-seeded Charlottesville girls’ basketball team knew they would be in for a battle in Friday night’s quarterfinal clash.
Not only were the Lady Knights well aware that the Terriers were better than their 10-12 record may suggest, but the home team was familiar with almost every key player on the opposing bench.
Almost everyone.
Head coach Jim Daly and company had the five Byrd seniors well-scouted, but all of that attention given to the upperclassmen allowed for a seldom used Terrier, freshman Ashlyn Stover to fly under the radar in what became a neck-and-neck battle.
After sitting for nearly the entire contest, Stover first checked into the game with less than one minute remaining and buried a go-ahead triple with 32.7 seconds left in regulation.
Stover’s trey, combined with some untimely misses from the foul line, allowed the the Terriers to escape CHS with a 49-47 triumph.
As a team, Charlottesville shot 1-for-17 from the charity stripe, including an 0-8 showing in the fourth quarter.
The loss brings CHS’ season to an end with a record of 18-8.
Stover, who was forced into the rotation due to foul trouble from her elder teammates, entered the game with her team trailing by two, and was immediately whistled for a double dribble on her first offensive play. With the Terriers’ season on the line, however, senior Meghan Gant entrusted Stover on Byrd’s next possession.
After bobbling a tough pass from Gant, Stover promptly squared up and knocked down a three-pointer from the left hand corner. The trey sent the William Byrd bench into a frenzy.
“[Stover], I don’t know how she did it. Coming off of the bench cold, having not played the whole game, she’s a freshman, wow,” William Byrd head coach Brad Greenway said. “I’m really proud of the group for not panicking.”
The triple and an ensuing made free-throw by Gant capped an 18-5 run that started in the closing seconds of the third quarter.
After leading by as many as 12 late in the third, the Knights managed just two field goals in the final nine minutes of play, and left a lot of points off the board at the free throw line.
“Hats off to William Byrd. They executed and made foul shots down the stretch when they needed to,” Daly said. “We played them last year too. We knew how well coached they are. They’re a great group of kids.”
The fourth quarter struggles came on the heels of an impressive third stanza for the Black Knights. Trailing by four at the break, CHS stormed out of the locker room with 12 points in four minutes, as a part of an 18-2 run for the home team.
La’Kasia Calloway and Tatiana Allen-Taylor started the surge with back-to-back threes, and Carmella Jackson scored six of her team-best 11 points during the run.
Camiyah Brown, who left the game in the first half with an injury, returned and reeled off two consecutive layups at the tail end of the third quarter to put Charlottesville ahead by as many as 12 points.
The Lady Knights kept Byrd scoreless from the field until the final 45 seconds of the fourth quarter, thanks to a tough and balanced effort on the defensive end
“I thought we had a lot of energy [in the third quarter],” Daly said. “We had a good spurt just trying to keep the defense going. I think our man-defense played hard, we just didn’t finish it off very well.”
The long-range shots stopped falling for Charlottesville in the fourth quarter, with the exception of a clutch triple by Kasey Lamb with 2:50 left to play, after the Terriers had tied it.
After missing back-to-back free throws with one second left on the clock, The Knights had one more chance to send the game into overtime or win it after the Terriers could not inbound the ball cleanly.
Calloway had an open-look at a 25-footer on the final possession of the game, before her heave hit the back of the rim and bounced out.
The junior guard finished with eight points, while Lamb added seven, and Kaniyah Key chipped in six.
Key is the lone senior on a Charlottesville team that finished second overall in the Jefferson District and in a tough Region 4D. The veteran battled back from a knee injury that she sustained during AAU season to give the Black Knights a presence in the post on an otherwise guard-heavy roster.
Numbers-wise, this is one of the smallest senior classes that Daly has had in his near-decade run at the head of the CHS bench, but the veteran coach will miss Key’s contributions on and away from the court.
“[Key], the work that she did to rehab for the serious knee injury to come back and join us this year, she was ahead of schedule to play, let alone start these last few games,” Daly said. “I’m just super proud of her. We said in the locker room that everyone should be proud that she is a Black Knight and she represents us as a senior on this team.”
The Terriers will advance the Region 4D Semifinals and battle Pulaski County.
